Medical providers have become quite adept at using information technology (IT) for scheduling, order entry, costs capturing, clinical records, billing, and financial reporting. Some providers have also harnessed IT to implement various patient safety programs and clinical decision support. See for example the Brigham integrated computing system (BICS) implemented at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston Mass.
A huge problem remains, however, in that different clinical decision support systems are generally incompatible with each other. One approach has been to develop standardized formats for sharing and implementing point-of-care guidelines. These include: GuideLine Interchange Format (GLIF); Guideline Elements Model (GEM); Digital electronic Guidelines Library (DeGeL); and Asbru Guidelines Ontology.
Some computer systems have been implemented to integrate different guideline standards. WO 2005/003892 to Wang teaches a computer system that translates the different standardized formats into a generic translated guideline, and executes the translated guideline. Wang, however, simply creates a new generic guideline that takes existing guidelines as input, instead of truly creating an integrated software. Additionally, executing a generic translated guideline eliminates many of the advantages of the original standardized format.
WO 2006/035383 to Alsafadi teaches a database system that displays the different standardized formats. The different standardized formats can be displayed specifically, generally, or at intermediate levels of abstraction. Alsafadi, however, does not help to translate the different standardized formats into one more familiar to the institution. While customized views of a format may be created, the customized view must be created manually by the individual user by bypassing steps in the guideline instead of actually translating the view from one format into another.
Problems remain, however, in that these different formats are themselves incompatible, and it appears that the various institutions that develop and endorse particular systems and formats are loathe to relinquish their own work in favor of other standards. Thus, there is still a need in the medical care industry for integrating divergent guidelines standards.